Los Pollitos – The Little Chickens

We have finally – after many years of saying eventually – gotten chickens on the property – now officially a farm!   After extensive research on the Internet and plenty of interviews with local farmers, we started off by building a chicken shack out of what else:- recycles scrap building materials of course!

And then the biggest preoccupation was the rooster.  Could one have egg laying hens without a rooster that sings before dawn?  That was the big question we have been investigating – attempting to limit the 4 am sounds of a happy rooster – or worse – 1 am, 2 am, 3 am 4 am and 5 am – an unsynchronized rooster!

Don’t laugh – as the dysfunctional rooster is a fairly common issue around these parts!  So we put out a reward to any locals who would be able to help us find a rooster that does his thing with all the hens – but would be able to refrain from singing while we were still sleeping.  Our research has concluded that there are no mute roosters – at least not that anyone knows of.  So we’ve taken the plunge – and acquired a bunch of young and medium sized hens with one happy rooster.

They are still too young to sing or lay – but for now the chicken experience has proven to be a blessing for the kids – Sara in particular.  She is fascinated and thrilled at spending as much time as possible chasing them, picking them up and feeding them.

Here is one for you

Chicken care is fairly easy – we think so far. Just feed them feed concentrate (available at the pet store), corn, leftovers or just about anything, change the water, let then run out in the day time, keep the shack clean – and collect the eggs of course! Eventually within a few weeks, the goal is to have lots of fresh eggs everyday.  There is a world of a difference between a fresh egg – and the ones we buy in the store…all the difference in the world.  And that is why we now have chickens!!

~ by Manuel on July 31, 2008.